Evers Remembered in Arlington Tribute

APARNA H. KUMAR

Published 8:00 pm, Sunday, June 15, 2003

Associated Press Writer

In a shady corner of Arlington National Cemetery, a simple headstone marks the grave of Medgar Evers, a Mississippi civil rights leader whose murder 40 years ago by a white segregationist galvanized the struggle for racial equality.

Nearly 100 guests gathered there Monday to honor Evers' life and legacy, including members of his family, veterans of the civil rights movement, high school students and Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who resigned as Senate majority leader in January amid accusations that he was nostalgic for the segregated South.

The ceremony was organized by three Chicago-area high school students whose documentary project on Evers brought them to the final rounds of the National History Day competition at the University of Maryland. Classmates Sharmistha Dev, 17, Jajah Wu, 18, and Debra Siegel, 18, approached Evers' widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, with the idea for the tribute and lobbied for a Senate resolution declaring a "National Week of Remembrance" dedicated to Evers.

On June 12, 1963, President John F. Kennedy had delivered a speech about his vision for a colorblind America. At a rally in Mississippi, Evers, a campaigner for black voting rights in the South, praised the president's remarks. After driving to his home in Jackson, Evers was shot dead in his driveway by Byron de la Beckwith, a member of the Ku Klux Klan who was convicted 30 years and three trials after the shooting.

Evers was 37 when he died.

Evers-Williams, who spoke at the ceremony, recalled the day she saw her husband buried alongside the nation's war heroes and presidents.

"It was one of the first times in my life that I felt we were truly being treated as Americans," she said. Still, she said, "Medgar loved his country and he loved his state."

An Army veteran, Evers was in the D-Day landing force in France in World War II and was awarded two Bronze Stars for valor.

Lott sat quietly through the ceremony. Afterward, he said he appreciated the invitation and enjoyed meeting the Evers family. "This is a seminal event in the history of Mississippi, and it's appropriate that this event be held to honor Medgar Evers' memory," Lott said.

Lott lost his job as Senate majority leader last year after he remarked that the nation might have been better off had segregationist Strom Thurmond won the presidency when he ran on a third-party ticket in 1948.